WORKSHOP
CALL for SHORT PAPERS

Organizer: Chiara Eva CATALANO, Institute of Applied Mathematics and Information Technologies, CNR, Genoa, Italy | Sorin HERMON, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus

Description of the workshop: The potential of computer vision and computer graphics methodologies to support the research in Cultural Heritage (CH) has recently become more evident. Indeed, 3D modelling, processing and analysis are now mature enough to allow the management of 3D digitized objects as if they were physical, and then conducting specialised qualitative and quantitative analyses to assist researchers in the field. Moreover, knowledge technologies nowadays guarantee a digital and extensive documentation of many different aspects of complex assets as well as of contextual information about them. Bringing geometric and semantic modelling together is the next challenge towards a real digital heritage science.
The workshop aims to discuss the outcomes of the EU GRAVITATE project, where several tools for geometry-and semantics-driven analysis of digital artefacts has been realized and integrated to support research in archaeology. The general objective of the project is proposing an innovative approach to the study of heritage artefacts, which includes virtual reconstruction, classification and morphological analysis, steps that are currently limited by the access to physical items and the impossibility to re-unite them physically, either because they are stored in various museums or because physical refitting fails. The context is particularly interesting, as most of the archaeological objects discovered in a survey are usually fragmentary, eroded and broken, documented with traditional archaeological texts describing the content of the fragments verbally and therefore mostly qualitatively.
In the workshop, we will discuss the methodological approach and the results obtained in the project, covering both the semantic and geometric aspects. In particular, innovative techniques for semantic search and geometric similarity to re-unify and re-associate dispersed artefacts will be presented; once re-unification takes places, promising methods for the re-assembly of 2D and 3D pieces will be described; the GRAVITATE platform will be showcased, where the developed tools for the search, analysis and documentation of digital artefacts have been integrated. The workshop will include a final discussion with the audience on future research challenges.

Target groups: The themes of the workshop cover some crucial aspects of the CH field and are relevant for many attendees of the Visual Heritage Conference. The end users of the GRAVITATE project – curators, conservators, researchers in archaeology, and illustrators – are the most direct beneficiaries of the workshop, since the developments in the field of shape analysis and semantic description of 3D digital artefacts may advance their daily activity. A presentation on the GRAVITATE platform has been scheduled together with practical demos to showcase the system to participants and potential users. CH scientists and ICT researchers will be able to share their interests and approaches during the workshop, discussing future challenges on geometric and semantic processing of digital artefacts in the CH domain.

Specifics:
EU GRAVITATE project, contract n. 665155. http://gravitate-project.eu/

GRAVITATE consortium:
IT Innovation Centre, Project Coordinator. http://www.it-innovation.soton.ac.uk/
British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/
The Cyprus Institute. https://www.cyi.ac.cy/
Istituto di Matematica Applicata e Tecnologie Informatiche – CNR. http://www.imati.cnr.it/
University of Amsterdam. http://www.uva.nl/
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. http://www.technion.ac.il/
University of Haifa. http://www.haifa.ac.il/index.php/en/

Tentative program

  • Welcome of the Workshop Chairs
  • Keynote. To be defined.
  • GRAVITATE archaeological and technological challenges.
  • GRAVITATE approach and Solutions
    • Data ingestion.
    • Semantic search and similarity of digital assets.
    • Geometric characterization and similarity of 3D digital artefacts.
    • 2D/3D re-assembly.
  • GRAVITATE platform: presentation and practical experience.
  • GRAVITATE in the wider context and open discussion on future challenges.

Time frame for the workshop: Half a day, approximately 4 hours.

Submit your abstract via online form!